Halima's Quest
by ben.covarrubias
Summary: Based in the Pathfinder world of Golarion Paizo Publishing . I claim no ownership over Paizo licensed products; and they have my thanks and gratitude for providing such lush content. She lived most of her life in the Mwangi Expanse. Seperated from her new friends, Halima undertakes a risky and dangerous quest to make amends for a young companion.
1. Chapter 1

The sun affects everything you do, if you are a smart creature in the Mwangi Expanse. Halima spent most of her living years in this region, and understood this concept very well. With the sun at its highest point in the sky, a smart creature would find what shelter it could – be that a simple canopy of leaves, an outcropping of rock, or even an underground tunnel, or a cave. The problem is that many predators are smart too, and though they will not spend the energy to hunt in the day, they know well enough to stake out such desired mid-day locations in hopes of prey coming to them. So it pays to also be wary. It was this wariness that compelled Halima to take her rest under a standalone tree, at the edge of the Screaming Jungle. Not the coolest of spots, but sized for her needs, and it gave an all-around view of her surroundings, so no prowling creature would come upon her unawares. Without company to watch your back, you took precaution over comfort every time; if you were smart, that is.

Not for the first time, did these thoughts draw Halima's attention to her pack, and the carefully wrapped bundle, therein. Her heart lay heavy in her chest, with the thought of the small creature that was that bundle. Regret and doubt gnawed at her, and the desire that lead to the decision to bring the young dinosaur with her on this exploration. Halima reached out to the bundle of cloth – her spare travel cloak – to feel the cold body of her little companion. "I am soo sorry, my little friend." She said again. "If I had left you where you were born, you might still be chasing the small, burrowing things over the ridges and through the hills. You were too young to know the danger of the world. I brought you on the chase for the snake-lady-witch, and it was too soon. I am soo sorry." That Pequeña was born in a hostile region was not lost on the Elf Ranger. The raptor would have led a dangerous life anywhere in the expanse; and even as a grown, top-level predator would likely have died from environmental conditions before old age claimed her. That was little comfort to Halima, and did nothing to lessen the pang of guilt she felt. Still, there was the matter at hand to attend to. Pragmatically, Halima knew she could not return Pequeña to the foot of the Bandu Hills, and more to the point the little raptor was beyond such concerns. Halima left the security of her travelling companions and friends days ago, but her destination was close at hand.

It was a gamble, but it appeared to have paid off. The area they had all passed through just days before was a convergence of the major features in this region. The Korir River was close at hand; the Screaming Jungle kept its western border on a narrow strip on the western side of the river; and the eastern edge of the Bandu Hills were close enough to provide an overlook to the water. If there were a more suitable location for top-level predators to claim, she would be hard pressed to find it. This morning she found a kill site. Days old and very scattered, it had been picked over by almost every creature that eats flesh in the area (which, Halima noted, was most of them!) She found what she was looking for on the bones of the kill: deep vertical gashes in parallel order. The wounds had the look of an adult raptor's bite pattern. Halima took this as a hopeful sign and returned to the area of the kill after the sun moved off its mid-day high. She began her search at the kill, moving in a corkscrew form in larger and larger sweeps. On the 5th sweep out she found her confirming clue: tracks. 2 adult raptors and 2 juveniles had moved down from the northwestern hills. Halima painted a mental picture from the offered clues, of a hunting and lesson party. The eldest raptor stayed with the juveniles, while the younger adult flushed the prey creature. The elder provided a debilitating bite, while the juveniles put on the death blows. Not a clean way for the creature to die, but important lessons for the young hunters to learn.

Deep in her thoughts about what she was about to face, Halima's mental guard did not alert her to the presence of a watcher from the wood. The sound of a branch moving against the normal flow from the wind finally did get her notice, and her reaction was one borne of surprise and memory-trained muscles. Halima dropped both the bone she had been examining, and her stance; coming around in a crouch that protected vital organs while allowing a wide response from arms and legs. With practiced ease her bow came off her torso while an arrow was pulled from her quiver, knocked, and pulled in a fluid motion. Her ears heard the disturbance, and her eyes and firing track zeroed in on the location to identify her would-be stalker.


	2. Chapter 2

The instant it took Halima to identify her target seared itself in her memory. Large, solid-amber eyes, that seemed to grow even larger when they recognized the immediate danger of being in Halima's sights. A black-nosed snout- surrounded by silver-white fur- made a slight move to the right; trying to put the tree between the Mawangi elf and itself without losing eye contact. The lemur let go of the overhead branch with its left hand and made what looked like a palm-forward, calming gesture. Realizing that her draw arm was in muscle distress, Halima lowered her bow and eased the nock off the string. "Oh! Little one, I do not know if I am more mad or relieved. You do not have to sneak up on me. I would welcome you any other time. But now is not so good. I have to go see the raptors; the ones that live in the nearby hills, and that claim these lands as their hunting place." The lemur grew more at ease, now that the lady elf had lowered the bow and began speaking in quiet, soothing tones. Curiosity mingled with caution; but caution won out, as the lemur moved back and away, signaling an end to the encounter. Halima watched the little creature go, curious herself; if anything she said had registered with the jungle primate. A thought path for another day, she decided, as she had to concentrate on the task at hand. Tracking the raptors would be challenging enough, then she had to communicate her intentions, and hope those intentions were well received. During her morning regimen, she committed a spell to memory that would allow temporary communication with the dangerous animals. She hoped, as she set out to track the hunting party back to their rocky home, that she would have good reason and good fortune to use it.

The trail proved easier to follow than she first hoped. Halima made distinctions between the hunting tracks and the returning tracks; the westward tracks indicated the returning raptors were now heavier with full bellies that made for deeper prints and set wider apart by the extra distention of the belly. "I hope having a good meal will put them in a good mood", she mused to herself, as the tracks came to the first truly difficult part of the journey. The lush green had given way to scrub miles ago, and the same could be seen of the scrub as it abutted the rocks and gravel of the Bandu hills. The trail became more about finding signs of the creatures' passing: a broken branch here, claw marks that indicate scrambling up a large boulder, or moving from shelf to shelf, but always higher. These predators did not appear to take any switch-back trails, but were straight-line oriented. She found signs of the smaller raptors moving further afield from their elders. The young ones seemed to be looking into every nook and cranny on the way back. Halima smiled in spite of herself – touched by the all-too familiar behavior, and picturing the ire of the elder raptors as they reign in the energy of the younglings. Imagining the squawks of the elders, she came out of her daydreams and realized she really was hearing them. The sounds were not far off, and she wondered how she had gotten this close so soon. 'Something must have delayed them, more than just the wanderings of the young ones', she thought to herself. Caution returned to her actions as she sensed a looming danger. Bow in hand, she moved to her right; higher on the ridge before her, which put the raptors' calls further to her left. She tried to make out distinctions, and could hear 2 "voices" in the calls; both were throaty enough to be the adults. That she didn't hear the young ones troubled her, and she thought of using her spell now, to discern what was making the adults so vocal. 'No', she thought. 'I will need the spell sooner than I thought, and its magic has very short limits'. Halima crouched lower as she approached the ridge. From this position it would be next to impossible to use her bow effectively, but she also lost more profile as she topped the crest, and stealth was more needed now. The ridge gave way to a bowl-shaped depression, and what she saw there angered the jungle elf like no other scene could.


	3. Chapter 3

The adult raptors were trapped in what looked like a combination of scrub and goo. Greasy, elastic tendrils enmeshed them both from the waist down, and the goo covering the scrub meant the raptors were effectively held in place. They vented their outrage, and their eyes promised violence of a very messy sort, as they looked upon their captors. Halima could make out three Mzali warriors, each armed with spear, knife, and blowgun. Two were in close proximity, and Halima made out the unmoving forms of the young raptors at the feet of the two Mzali. The third was forward of his companions, which put him less than 30 feet from the ever-increasingly infuriated adults. The closest 2 warriors were still more than 30 yards away, and Halima could sense that there was magic at work here. None of the Mzali made any sound that she could hear. Though they were quite animated – pointing, gesturing, and miming deadly actions – nothing could be heard coming from them. Their intentions were quite clear though, and the lead warrior became more and more brave as he saw the large adult raptors were stuck fast. Halima decided her course of action. Dropping back below the crest of the ridge, she quickly cast her incantation that would make the arrows she fired strike as hard as spear points. It was a risk to cast the spell, but if there was magic employed in making the Mzali silent, then it followed that they would not hear her either. Her personal mission so close at hand, and yet so close to failure, Halima steeled herself for what must come next. With a roll to her right and a forward spring she leapt to the top of the ridge and knocked an arrow in one fluid motion, taking aim for the furthest warrior.

If the situation were less dire, the scene would have appeared comical. Both the nearest Mzali saw Halima. The first was spooked by her presence and he crouched down, covering his head and screaming a wide-mouthed, yet totally silent scream. The second – more poised it seemed – tracked Halima's line-of-aim, and realized the danger for his further companion. At this realization he began to wave his arms and jump furiously into the air; but the magic he had employed to keep his actions silent now worked against him. Ignoring the warrior's impotent warnings, Halima re-doubled her efforts on her careful aim. In the time it had taken her to cast her spell and gain the ridge, the lead warrior had closed the gap on the helpless raptors, and was poised for a killing blow. Halima loosed her arrow, and immediately reached for a second arrow as the first sped along its deadly arc. The Mzali was struck unawares as the arrow slammed into the back of his trailing leg. The force of the blow crumpled his stance and he dropped to the ground, clutching at the shaft that fully pierced his thigh. The raptors halted their furious protests for just a moment, as the reality of the situation set in. Looking up to see the jungle Elf on the ridge, they resumed their calls in what could be described as angry encouragement.

Now seeing the threat she posed, the pair of Mzali moved closer to Halima's position, let fly with their spears, and then tried find some cover. Halima stood her ground, needing only the smallest turn of her hips to avoid the clumsy throws. She marked that it was her "poised" attacker who threw the spear that came closest; which earned him the next arrow. What little scrub he chose for cover proved no challenge for Halima's magically enhanced shot, and the arrow passed cleanly through brush and man, to bury itself half-way up the shaft in the ground. The sound cancelling magic that surrounded the warrior ended at this time, and his screams of pain could be heard clearly now, along with mutterings about "vile elfs" and "jungle demons". This proved too much for the last warrior, and he broke cover and ran as fast and as far from the dangerous ranger as his legs would allow. Halima, having already knocked a third arrow, took aim for the retreating man's back. As her focus narrowed in to the retreating target, her conscience focused on the fact that he was in fact retreating, and no longer a threat. Halima relaxed her stance and looked back to the first Mzali warrior. Though wounded he was not out of the fight. He had already snapped off the head of the arrow and was now pulling the shaft back out from its entry point. The shaft was free, and glistened wetly with the Mzali warrior's blood. The sight of the blood fascinated Halima, and she took an involuntary step forward. So deep in her fascination, she never realized that all sound had ceased around her. Before her mind could register this fact, she felt an intense, burning pain that started in her back and came through her lower torso. A fourth warrior – one she had not spotted, and whose sound-cancelling magic was still intact – had come up behind her, meaning to deliver a deadly thrust with his spear. The unconscious step Halima had taken at that moment had spoiled his mark, and kept the thrust from being mortal. Still, the wound was grievous, and Halima reacted by dropping her bow and rolling away from the threat behind her. This sent her on an uncontrolled tumble down the side of the ridge, and every impact on the way to the bottom sent new spears of pain through her body from the gaping wound. When she came to a stop Halima assessed her situation. The raptors were trapped, and the younglings had not moved this whole time; the leader was using his spear as a walking staff, and was shouting soundlessly to his companions; the other injured warrior now had two knives in hand and was moving unsteadily to his feet; and the last Mzali was making his way down the slope – his spearhead covered in Elf-gore. Halima smiled darkly and thought to herself 'they have me…right where I want them…'


	4. Chapter 4

The knife-wielding warrior was closing in on her. Halima spotted her bow 20 feet up the slope she had just uncharacteristically tumbled down. She knew she'd never reach it in time; she also knew she did not have to. Words of arcane power came clearly to her mind. As she spoke them, she reached out with her left hand and the bow rose from its settled location and answered her summons. Simultaneously reaching to her quiver she was disappointed to discover that all but one arrow had been tossed. The Mzali knew his doom though, and desperately sped towards Halima, hoping to close the distance before she could draw back. Their eyes locked; his in feral desperation, hers in grim resolve, and the arrow pierced his neck. Grunting from the effort, Halima had to roll away from the warrior's falling form, knowing that the spear wielder was close at hand. He gained a measure of bravery at the sight of her empty quiver, and watched as Halima dropped her bow. Not taking her eyes off him, Halima drew her sword and squared off with her next threat. The sword was a stylized machete; recently recovered during her expedition, and though it held no magic, Halima had been assured by her Dwarven companion, Grumbul, that it was a mighty work. "A master craftsman could spend a lifetime at his art, and never see this much star-steel. A finished blade will never yield to another substance." Just as she had hoped, the sight of her short-reach weapon encouraged her enemy. Seeing his advantage he set his stance for a lunge and thrust again for the jungle elf. Halima invited the thrust, and with a double-handed grip made the spear her target. The two weapons met; Halima received a gash across her left forearm for her efforts, but she was rewarded with a satisfying 'SHING' as her blade cut through haft and sinew that made up the spear. The Mzali's confidence was cut as cleanly as his spear, and he also realized that he heard the sound of the weapons colliding. He spit put his hatred as he raised what remained of his spear over his head. "Witch! Demon! Die!" Halima wasted no further attacks against his spear haft, instead she worked to make quick work of the Mzali. It was over in moments; the man gave no quarter and asked none. Halima's adamantine blade pushed through ribs and shuddered in her grasp as it pierced the heart. Halima felt her own strength ebbing, and still had to consider the Mzali leader who had, to this point, remained out of her reach. Looking about she saw the two warriors she had dispatched: the first with a gaping wound in his neck, and the second bleeding out from several cuts from her sword. She felt a hunger she had long denied, and the sight of the Mzali blood stirred a yearning that she would no more refute than she would reject. She wanted the blood; and her instincts told her that at this time she needed the blood. Dropping to her knees before the body of the warrior with the tattered neck, she put her mouth the gore that was his flesh. She could feel his heart's final beats, and each beat was pumping more blood through the mangled remains of his carotid artery. Halima began to feed. She could feel the essence of life in the blood; could taste the surety existence in the bitter iron flavor. She did more than just drink the blood; her body consumed it and made immediate use of it. While she drank the crimson draught, Halima became preternaturally aware of her body. Her skin was alive and reporting every sensation from the weight and pressure of her garments, to the movement of follicles as a gust of wind spun up by her right arm. She could sense tissue growth, and a dozen and more scrapes and scratches becoming whole once more. The gory mess that was her right side burned and itched, as muscle grew and re-connected, fatty cells and membranes covered internal organs, and skin re-wove to cover it all. It was not enough to restore all her wounds, but it would do for now. A sharp pinprick in her thigh brought her out of her reverie, and Halima soon was awash in icy pain. Her awareness of her body told her that poison was coursing through her system, and her muscles were reacting by stiffening up. If allowed to take its natural course her major muscle groups would seize up and she would be helpless. The thought occurred to her that this may be what was done to the younglings; but she could not allow herself to dwell further on it. With a burst of mental fortitude, Halima flexed and contracted her muscles, forcing them to overcome the poison's grip. She looked up at the last Mzali – the leader – who stood less than 20 feet away. He was frantically trying to pull another dart from his pouch when Halima stood up. The Mzali leader gained his voice as his soundless magic expired.

"Foul demon! Filthy Witch!" he screamed at Halima.

"This is not the first time I have heard this. Don't you have something more original to say?" Halima replied, as she closed the distance. Moving as swiftly as if she had never been poisoned, she pulled her punch dagger from its sheath, and thrust for the man's heart. He had sense enough to drop the blowgun and await her attack. His counter thwarted her death strike, but still earned him a deep gash across his left torso. Though wounded, he was still a powerful Mzali warrior, and he wrapped the jungle elf in a fierce and crushing embrace. Halima tried to bring her dagger to bear, but the angle of attack and the constriction on her arm made it all but useless. She could not hold out against him, not with her own strength failing. He could sense this truth as well, feeling her resistance growing weaker as he increased his hold. He drew her in – a zealous malevolence in his expression.

"Your meat is tainted with evil, witch", the Mzali growled. "No fit creature would dare nourish itself from your corpse! When you are dead, I will leave your carcass here for all time! Not even fit for wor….hrk!" His words were stopped suddenly as his face contorted in a violent spasm. His arms gave Halima one final crush before internal tremors caused them to loose their grip. She stumbled on her way to the ground, but managed to keep her feet. She looked down to her left hand, where she still gripped the dart she pulled from the warrior's belt pouch; the blood from his abdomen fresh on the tip. "The poison you bring here is not your own! Stolen from other creatures, and used to kill not for food! Now it will be the end of you; unless the raptors say otherwise."

Drawing on the look she gave past his shoulder, the Mzali warrior took a studdering turn, to find that the adult raptors had made their way free from the tangle of bushes and sticky stuff. Only his eyes registered the terror of realization, as he tried to will his body to move at his command. A lurching stumble was all he managed before the elder raptor sprang upon him. With one clawed foot the raptor pinned the man to the ground. A growling hiss issued from the creature's mouth, and the Mzali twitched and gurgled feebly; not even controlling his mouth for a proper scream. The second raptor walked up almost casually, and bit the man mid-calf. Their predations began in earnest, and Halima turned away to leave them to their grisly business. She looked over towards the body of the warrior she had pierced through the heart, and knew what she must do. "There is life in the blood", she said.


End file.
